that's it. >> thanks for watching. >> stick around for election coverage. see you tomorrow, everybody. >> >> bret: a budget battle in washington and a primary showdown here in illinois. live from chicago, this is "special report." >> good evening, i'm bret baier. we are live in the heart of the windy city. we will have all the news from the illinois primary in just a moment. but we begin in washington, where the republicans' point man on money matters today unveiled his latest plan to try to make the federal books a little less unbalanced. jim angle shows us what's in it. >> reporter: paul ryan sponsored a sweeping return for the republican budget plan.

he began with a guilt o.p. favorite. >> first, we propose that we repeal the president's disastrous health care law. it stops spending from threatening our fiscal house. >> reporter: he emphasized reigniting economic growth is the key goal, to reduce tax, which he dolled by collapsing 6 tax brackets into two, leaving a 10 and 25% rate and reducing the corporate rate to 25% as well, which he said is the international average. he argues that can be done without adding to the deficit by iewg the same techniques at the bowles-simpson administration. >> we can get faster economic growth, you can do that in a revenue-neutral way. >> reporter: deciding which tax breaks to jettison would be done by the house ways & means. >> we will let congress make sure that a system that gives massive tax cuts to the wethiest americans somehow isn't paid for on the backs of the middle

class. i don't think that's a -- that's a bait and switch the american people want to engage in. >> reporter: the republican budget calls for significant reductions in federal spending over 10 years, 5.3 trillion less than the president wants to spend. >> look at where our country is headed. look at where the president and his budget is taking the country. >> the republican budget is a prescription for economic decline and for shredding the social safety net. >> reporter: paul ryan has searched for ways to keep medicare from collapsing under trillions in unfunded liabilities. he would change nothing for those 55 and over and future seniors would have a choice. >> to stay on the current program fthat's hathey desire or to move to a different program through a premium support process. >> reporter: that draws heavy fire from democrats. >> it's deja vu all over again. medicare is -- presented in a way that -- no one recognizes it

from the original program. >> reporter: so, the baths battle lines are drawn in congress and in the elections. ryan said republicans owe it to the country and feel morally bound to give voters a choice of two futures. that, he has done. bret? >> bret: thank you. let's get reaction to the ryan plan from the obama administration. chief white house correspondent, ed henry is live. >> reporter: good evening. the white house again charging as they did last year that the ryan budget would end medicare as we know it, even though it's gone through changes. last year, it was a full privatization, this year, a partial privatization, despite that, white house officials basically said, this will wyle wipe out traditional medicare. take a listen. >> that spiral is the term that is used in insurance for exactly this process. where adverse election pulls out people and leaves those in the

pool facing higher and higher costs. >> reporter: now, republicans defend the changes as necessary to get the nation's fiscal house in order on a day that we learn that the president has reached a very negative milestone. if you look at the chart, president george w. bush added $4.899 trillion in 8 years of office to the national debt. now this president has added $4.939 trillion in just over 3 years. when i pressed carney, he brame its on republicans not supporting tax hikes. >> it's a balanced approach that republicans have supported the revenue diminishing commission. unfortunately, we have not seen that same recognition of the need for essential balance by house republicans. >> reporter: top officials here also charging that the ryan budget will decimate federal funding for various research into alternative energy and they

say that tomorrow, as the president embarks on a two-day tour out west, to deal with rising gas price, he will double down on soular and other alternative sources of energy, desmite high-profile failure, of course, like solyndra. >> bret: ed hanry, live on the north lan. thank you. >> the illinois primary has a major payoff for the winner, a potential delegate bonanza in an increasingly bitter race. carl cam ran begins from nearby schaumburg. >> reporter: mitt romney stopped by google's chicago office for an online hangout, ahead what have he hopes to be a decisive victory in the g.o.p. primary tonight. >> vihigh expectations. i think we are going to win here in ilfly. >> reporter: the unemployment,

9.4% is higher than the national average. rick santorum said, he doesn't care about the unemployment rate because he's interested in issues of liberty and freedom. >> i think that high unemployment is a big problem and people are suffering and my message is about jobs and the economy. >> reporter: after endorsing romney in 2008 and saying that he would be a better president than mr. obama, rick santorum said that if romney wins the nomination, people should vote for barack obama and stick with him because their policies are the same. >> desperate. have you the public going too far. i remain tolerant, by not looking at what people are saying. >> reporter: it takes 1144 to win. so far, romney has 521, more than twice rick santorum and quadruple of newt gingrich. and if you add ron paul's 50, he has more than all of them combined.

>> reporter: rick santorum will await the returns in pennsylvania, his home state, which does not vote until late april. santorum was vastly outspent in illinois. romney, in the pro-romney super pac spent $3.7 million. to pull off an upset, rick santorum needs big wins in the down state and rural areas and to compete in chicagoland, where mitt romney is strong. newt gingrich was in louisiana, which votes saturday. ron paul took the day off the trail. neither seriously competed in the land of lincoln, so santorum's contention that he could win head to head with romney, could be put to the test tonight. 24 of illinois's hundred-plus counties have had ballot

problems, the ballots are slightly bigger than the machines. it could slow the count. they will have to be handital lead, so the results could be coming later in the evening tonight. >> >> bret: just autopsy up the road in schaumburg, thank you. let's see what the voters are telling us. we go to steve brown in napier swrl early exit poll results. >> yes, it's less than 2 hours until the polls close in the lands of lincoln. what we are learning is that midwestern illinois is upon nearly as conservative as the southern states that held primary contests a week ago tuesday. let's have a look. here, once again, we are seeing the very conservative voters are backing santorum. 13 for gingrich and paul has 5%. romney gets 52% of the moderate potes. and santorum has 24% and

gingrich and paul, 12 and 10%. the candidate quality most voters want is the ability to beat president obama in the fall. 37% cite that as a top quality and 24% want someone with strong moral character and 20% are looking for a true conn conservative. those who say electability is the biggest concern heavily support romney. those who favor strong moral character, strongly favor santorum. voters are in it for the long haul. if necessary. 68% their candidate win, even if the race continues 4 months and 29% wish the race would end as soon as possible, even if their candidate loses. santorum's supporters are more likely to be tolerant of a long campaign. back to you. >> bret: steve, thank you. we'll have live updates all evening long hoar on fox newschannel. be sure to join us for an hour-long recap with the results and analysis at 11:00 p.m.

eastern. 10 central. should a teenager be thrown in prison for life with no chance of ever getting out? up next, getting out of afghanistan. the general in charge tells us how that's going. ♪ [ kareem ] i was fascinated by balsa wood airplanes

since i was a kid. [ mike ] i always wondered how did an airplane get in the air. at ge aviation, we build jet engines. we lift people up off the ground to 35 thousand feet. these engines are built by hand with very precise assembly techniques. [ mike ] it's gonna fly people around the world. safely and better than it's ever done before. it would be a real treat to hear this monster fire up. [ jaronda ] i think a lot of people, when they look at a jet engine, they see a big hunk of metal. but when i look at it, i see seth, mark, tom, and people like that who work on engines every day. [ tom ] i would love to see this thing fly. [ kareem ] it's a dream, honestly. there it is. oh, wow. that's so cool! yeah, that was awesome! [ cheering ] [ tom ] i wanna see that again. ♪ i toog nyguil bud i'm stild stubbed up.

[ male announcer ] truth is, nyquil doesn't un-stuff your nose. really? [ male announcer ] alka-seltzer plus liquid gels fights your worst cold symptoms, plus it relieves your stuffy nose. [ deep breath ] thank you! that's the cold truth! top qualitlobster is all we catch. [ male announcer ] don't miss red lobster's lobstfest. the only time of year you can savor 12 eiting lobster entrees, like lobster lover's dream i'm laura mclennan and i sea food differently.

>> bret: wishing back to chicago, where voters have another 45 nopts cast their ballots in the illinois primary. but first, world headlines. russia says it's ready to support a united nations resolution, endorsing the plan to end the fighting in syria. reports show the aftermath of shelling of homes. an international human rights group is accusing opposition forces of abusing government troops. a series of bombings ripped across eight cities in iraq, leaving 46 people dead. one of the worst strikes was in karbala in a crowded shopping area, killing 13. we are learning more about the

army staff sarge apt in custody for the massacre of afghan civilians this month. lawmakers hearded heard today fe man in charge about the exit strategy and the problems trying to get in a position to leave. national security correspondent jennifer griffin has that story. >> reporter: the major was laid to rest today in arlington national cemetery, killed by an afghan partner -- shot in the back of the head, an apparent retaliation for the mistaken koran burning that set off a chain reaction of violence. with this backdrop, general john allin in his first testimony to congress since taking command of the afghan war, said 13 of the 60 troops killed in afghanistan since january 1 were killed by afghans they were training. general allen defended the current war strategy. >> if we get into 2014 and the afghans are not trained where they need to be, and we are

spending money, losing lives, will you be honest with the next administrationism i will be honest with you now and i will be honest with the next administration. it's my moral obligation. fithink that's coming off the rails, congressman, i will let you know that. >> reporter: the president's strategy includes training the afghan security forces, which have increased from 276 to 330,000 in a year, according to general allen. by the end of 2014, the u.s. and nato plan to hand security control to the afghan, entirely. congressman hank johnson, a democrat from georgia, suggested that robert bales, the soldier accused of killing 16 afghan civilians may have been a product of combat stress and wanted assurances that the army would not, quote, throw the sold your under the bus. >> the investigation will be thorough. we operate from a presumption of

innocence. it is the nature of who we are. >> reporter: meanwhile, the civilian lawyer for the staff sergeant bailz said his client could not remember what happened on the night of the shooting spree. >> he has no memory. he has an early memory and a later memory of this evening. but he doesn't have memory of in between. >> reporter: he said his client was not drunk that night. he only, quote, had a couple of sips of something. now, we are learning that staff sergeant bales was found liable in the defrauding of an ohio investor of nearly $1 million, a few months after joining the army after 9/11. >> a joint appeal to the iranian people, saying they should not be divided from americans. the iranian government is trying to communicate with the west, but not exactly as president obama wants. >> reporter: as the u.s. and the u.n. try to stop iran's

nuclear weapons program, the iranian regime is trying to spread its message, launching a tehran-based spanish-language satellite tv channel. >> it's for all of the country. >> reporter: via skype from caracas, the network was forced to shut down by hugo chavez, says latin-american broadcasters are worried that it will push anti-american, anti-west and anti-psychriatistsian messages. >> they do not believe in freedom. they dont believe in human rights. so they are a very important common denominator and venezuela can provide the money. >> reporter: it follows ahmadinejad's visit in january of nikki haley, cuba and ecuador. >> i would not be at all surprised that anti-americannism and anti-semitism, sometimes in the overt form, sometimes in the form of the anti-zionism is

going to be very much the mainstay. >> reporter: the head of the u.s.-based opposition network, channel 1 says that his-span should raise red flags. >> you shouldn't ask me. ask the western societies, why aren't they stopping the financial relations between iran and other countries? >> reporter: the iranians run six international channels in 25 languages, including press tv in english. its propaganda led the british to revoke its license n. los angeles, fox news. >> bret: a major earthquake rumbled through parts of mexico today, buildings shook and workers fled into the streets of mexico city. at least 60 homes collapsed near the epicenter. the u.s. geological survey says the 7.4 magnitude quake struck 26 miles east of acapulco. still hearksd the federal government gets involved in the shooting of an unarmed

african-american teenager. first, the fight over a tribute to an american hero. ♪ [ male announcer ] how could a luminous protein in jellyfish, impact life expectancy in the u.s., real estate in hong kong, and the optics industry in germany? at t. rowe price, we understand the connections of a complex, global economy. it's just one rean over 75% of our mutual funds beat their 10-year lipper average. t. rowe price. invest with confidence. request a prospectus or summary prospectus

with investment information, risks, fees and expenses to read and consider carefully before investing. chocolate lemonade ? susie's lemonade... the movie. or... we make it pink ! with these 4g lte tablets, you can do business at lightning-fast spes. we'll take all the strawberries, dave. you got it, kid. we have a winner. we're definitely gonna need another one. small sinesses that want to grow use 4g lte technology from verizon. i wonder how she does it. that's why she's the boss. because the small business with the best tecology rules. contact the verizon center for customers with disabilities at 1-800-974-6006.

>> gasoline went up a half penny overnight. the national average is now $3.85 a gallon. crude oil took a big dip, losing $2.50. stocks today were also down. the dow lost 69 and s&p dropped 4 and nasdaq fell 4 as well. back in washington, they can argue about just about anything. even a tribute to a war hero turned president. james rosen reports on the fight over the eisenhower memorial. >> reporter: his most famous creations, like the gewel

guggenheim museum or the stata center at m.i.t., have been fantastical works, but now at 83, frank garry has hit a brick wall. >> acclaimed by free men the world over. >> reporter: dwight d. eisenhower was the supreme allied commander and conqueror of the nazis and liberator of nazi prison camps, but america's 34th president, builder of our national highway system, enforcer of school integration. and on tuesday, his granddaughters conveyed to a house natural resources subcommittee, the family's displeasure for the plans for eisenhower square, the four-acre plot would be punctuated by giant metal facades with pickets of ike's beloved kansas, a sculpture of ike as a boy

between enormous carvings, depicting ike the general on d.day and the president, casting his weary eye on a troubled world. after years of going along with the project, the gained daughters now object. >> the holocaust survivors have said to me that the metal curtains are reminiscent of internment. >> if you will move it, then you don't have a lot left. you have a others boy on a lerjs looking at two bas relief, which is the narrative is not correct. >> the head of the memorial commission defend the proposal. >> the designer is a vision of a young boy who will become a great general and a great president. >> reporter: the cost of dumping geary $32 million, with the completed project expected to cost $100 million, enough to prompt ike fhe were here, to

warn us about the memorial industrial complex. james rosen. >> >> bret: no grapevine and more news from chicagoa and around the country. up next, how young is too young to get life in prison?

>> welcome back to downtown chicago, where polls in the illinois primary will close in

about an hour and-a-half. republicans are voting in a presidential preference election. mitt romney is hoping to grab many of the 54 delegates at stake. rick santorum is behind, having failed to qualify for at least 10 of them, because of filing problems. now, to central florida, where the federal government is getting involved in the shooting of a teenager. steve hariggan tells us,s the potential for an explosive reaction that has washington interested. >> reporter: the department of justice has opened an investigation into the shooting death of an unarmed black teenager, tray von martin, by a neighborhood watch volunteer if samford, florida. a county grand jury will be convened april 10. the investigation, which will be joined by the fbi and the state attorney's office, is expected to take several weeks. and comes on the heels of growing anger in florida and online, over the fail tower arrest the alleged shooter, 28-year-old george zimmerman.

protests were sparked after the release of 911 tapes. >> we have heard break-ins and there are real suspicious guys. he looks like haze up to no good or he's on drugs or something. >> reporter: minutes before the shooting, he called a girlfriend and said he was being followed. the attorney for the victim's family says the call shows that zimmerman was pursuing the 17-year-old and lied about shooting in self-defense. >> this is what zimmerman wants you to believe so he can justify killing this kid in cold blood. >> reporter: local police say their investigation has been color blind, that the alleged shooter had a bloody nose and a head wound when they arrived the the scene and there was no evidence to charge him with a crime. the case has focused nationwide attention on florida's stand your gun law, which does not require a gun owner to flee first before using force in self-defense n. miami, steve

hariggan, fox news. >> bret: back to washington and the latest challenge for the u.s. supreme court. it involves terrible crimes, young people, and just how much've their lives they should spend paying for those crimes. he is shannon bream. >> we had to live with this every day. >> reporter: sandy's father was killed in 2003. an alabama jury convicted evan miller who was 14 at the time, he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. today, attorney bryant steveson took that and other murder conviction, before the supreme court, saying a chance of no release is unconstitutional. >> to say to any child that you are only fit to die in prison, we contend is cruel and unusual prison am we hope that the court will prohibit it in both of these cases. >> there is a dispute over whether it's a constitutional issue our one left to the states' authority. in the argument, justice scalia

said something like 39 states allow it. i mean, the american people, you know, have decided that's the rule. i am supposed to impose my -- my judgment on what seems to be a consensus of the american people? lawmakers and judges have every right to mete out a tough sentence and mill her due process. >> he had a jury trial of all females. 8 of the 12 were mothers, who convicted him of capital murder. >> reporter: a number of justices expressed real concern about where to draw the line. justice briarasked, quote, is there any constitutional minimum at ought'll all, in which you could give a child life without parole you? could have a 10-year-old or an 8-year-old? i mean, is it totally up to the states, or is there a minimum? the alabama sloes torgeneral refused to speculate. >> there may be a line beyond which states can't impose life without parole sentence as a matter of constitutional law,

but that is surely below 14. >> reporter: family members of the victims said that if the offenders are allowed to apply for parole because of their age, the families will be forced to relive the crimes over and over. but the attorneys for the juveniles said that juvenile offenders have the best record of being rehabilitated and should be given that chance. >> bret: thank you. we'll talk about paul ryan's new budget proposal with the fox all stars when we come back.

a route map shows you where we go. but not how we get there. because in this business, there are no straight lines. only the twists and turns of an unpredictable industry. so the eighty-thousand employees at delta... must anticipate the unexpected. and never let the rules overrule common sense. this is how we tame the unwieldiness of air travel, until it's not just lines you see... it's the world. that the person you'd grow up to be -- how creative or confident or kind -- was shaped before you lost your first tooth? ♪ the first five years are forever. that's why pnc created grow up great, a $350 million, multi-year initiative that began in 2004 to help prepare kids from birth to age 5 for school and life.

cannot be contained. [ clang ] the all-new 2013 lexus gs. there's no going back. see your lexus dealer.

on december 21st, polar shifts will reverse the earth's gravitational pull and hurtle us all into space, which would render retirement planning unnecessary. but say the sun rises on december 22nd and you still need to retire, td ameritrade's investment consultants can help you build a plan that fits your life. we'll even throw in up to $600 when you open a new account or roll over an old 401(k). so who's in control now, mayans? >> we propose to save and strengthen medicare by taking power away from bureaucrats. >> it cuts benefits to senior who eee. >> we propose to collapse six tax brackets into two rates, a 10% and a 25% bracket for individuals. >> hey, i'm going to give you a

tax break and have no details on how to pay for them. >> our budget will protect seniors and really begin to deal with these tremendous deficits that have been driven up by this administration. >> it is... not a plan that this president could support. >> bret: the reaction, to paul ryan, laying out a sweeping reform. the republican budget includeses as you heard there, bringing down the tax brackets from six to two, 10 and 25% and corporate tax rate, 25% and federal spending cuts over 10 years. what about this, the way forward politically and in this policy, let's bring in our special expanded panel from washington. bill kristol, editor of the weekly standard and mara liasson, syndicated columnist, charles krauthammer and brit hume. marra, your thoughts, what does

this mean politically? >> politically, republicans now have something to rally around. it's simple, in terms of tax reform. two rates. cuts spen egg lot, which republicans want. the big piece that's missing really is they say they want to get rid of tax expenditures to do this reform and broaden the base and lower the rates, but they don't say what they will cu. so that remains to be answered. they haven't said what income levels will go into the tax bracket. but it's clear t. does say that it's going to solve the problem and it gives republicans something to run on and that's important. >> bret: bill? >> yeah. i think it is what the republican nominee's going to run on and the republican president fthere is one in january, 2013, will governor on. so i think in some important ray ways, this is paul ryan's party when it comes to budgetary, fiscal, debt, medicare and a

health care reform, which is a lot. he addresses defense with the sequester, hanging over everyone to impose brutal cuts on the defense. he shows a way to get out of the sequester, take the cuts out of mandatory, domestic programs to get to the reduction, this is next year, without destroying defense, which is something that is awfully important to a lot of conservatives, including me. so i think it's a task of intellectual and political leadership and it will be up to him and his colleagues and to the presidential candidate to make the case that this is a better way than president ork 'bama? >> bret: to that point, brit, two reactions, one from mitt romney about this budget plan, saying, quote, the house republican budget rejects the out of control spending of president obama last month, by imposing prescriptions to strengthen medicare and

highlights president obama's failed leadership... >> bret: that's a much different answer from newt than a year ago. >> let's be clear about what paul ryan is proposing. the big driver of deficit spending and the out of control program is medicare. he proposes to change medicare from a program of an open-ended program of unlimited benefits, where the only way you can press the cost is by taking out of the hides of medical providers which really doesn't work, it makes medical care less available. he imposes limits on it. it is going to be very hard to pass that. it won't pass this year. certainly won't pass this year t. will never pass with the democrats in control of the senate and the white house. paul ryan believes that a day of

reckoning is coming. medicare will collapse of its own weight, if something isn't done to change it. he is betting that it's time to put himself and the party on the side of avoiding the most predictable fiscal crisis that the country's ever faced. that's the key here. it's going to take guts for the house republicans to go along with it. it looks like the presidential candidates are going to support it. that's an encouraging sign for what ryan is trying to do. but make no mistake, the tough one is medicare because that's the big driver. >> bret: we should point out, there was no statement from rick santorum. ron paul said that the budget doesn't cut anything, any spending. charles, the political danger here is that democrats, obviously, and they already started today, will pounce on this and try to turn the discussion, how successful can they have doing that? will they have, doing that in this thenvironment? >> well, they already had a campaign on last year's ryan

budget, the medi-scare campaign, which was in part, dishonest, it said it abolishes medicare, but in fact tamended it and changed it in different ways. they will have a harder case today because the new ryan approach makes one major tweak. he got ron widen, the democratic senator of oregon to join him in a joint proposal, where you do change medicare from a guaranteed program of providers payment, meaning fee-for-service, into one where you guarantee the premium, the cost of the insurance. however, what he added now, in this budget is a provision that if you want to choose the old traditional medicare, you can do that. so now, any democrat who charges that abolishes current medicare is not speaking the truth. they will try that. they will say it. they said it today, already. but it simply isn't so.

it's one of the options that is offered. that was a very important change. remember, the house republicans approved the budget last year, without a provision of that sort. so now i think they have some kind of political protection. and tell make the argument -- the dishonest argue want of the democrats of abolishing medicare a lot more it difficult. >> bret: marra, you look at chart and paul ryan used this, citing omb and cbo numbers and says it's the two paths. this budget calls for federal spending reductions of $5.3 trillion and he points out that the current path continues to go up. >> look, what he is doing is trying to get the discussion, the election-year debate back to the deficit. it's remarkable, we went true it whole year of one commission after another, laying out paths to bringing the deficit under control, how you could do tax

reform, how you could raise revenues with tax reform and cut spending and do this, that and the other thing, they all laid out miles per hour the same plan with slightly different tweaks and then it disappeared into a black hole and you haven't heard the candidates talking about it. i do think now, this will get more talk from the republican candidates. >> bret: bill, the senate has not passed a budget in quite sometime. >> right. >> bret: i think it's 1060 days. there is very little hope this has a chance in the senate. >> noasm but the republicans need to make the case. and marra's right that they need to get back to the urgency of the debt. the debt is slightly over $15 trillion from $10 trillion, up 56%. it is unsustainable. and under president obama's budget, the debt continues to go up at almost that rate. the republicans reduce the rate of growth of the debt and it

turns over, a percentage of gdp and goes down. i think the republicans and presidential candidates are squabbling and worrying about things and not making the case for the urgency of the reforms that the ryan budget presents. >> let's not forget that this issue of spending and out of control debt is what drove the 2010 election. so i think that sentiment that drove that is still out there to be tapped. >> bret: panel, thank you very much for the brady bunch version. next up here from chicago, illinois political experts on today's big primary. [ male announcer ] chicken broccoli alfredo.

mushroom smothered beef burgers. hearty chicken and noodle casserole. so easy, you just need campbell's cream of mushroom soup to make them and a hungry family to love them. campbell's. it's amazing what soup can do.

>> many of the conservative activists here are referring to santorum in this state, at least

-- >> or a gibson steakhouse, a chicago landmark in downtown. we thought we would have a local panel of political experts to steer us through the illinois primary before the results tonight. first, mike flannery, political editor of fox chicago news. carrie lester, daily herald and lynn sweet from the chicago sun times. michael, let's start about what we need to know about illinois and why it's different? >> i think there are some local idiosyncrasies, but it is worth noting that many conservative activists here are referring to santor num this state as the consensus conservative candidate. there have been signs that he has achieved something here he hasn't achieved in earlier states. and the other thing to know as you watch the returns tone, bret, is that the big headline number that everybody's going to report, what percentage of the vote -- romney and santorum

get -- is scornfully dismissed by the political insiders as a beauty contest, because it means nothing for tampa. the del baitigates are elected directly. this being illinois, have you to vote twice for president, in the beauty contest and directly for the delegates. >> bret: basically, the ballot's set up with the beauty contest, if you will, at the top, and the names of the delegates. have you to understand that that is who you are voting for in the second part. >> have you to go all the way to the bottom. and last week, last weekend, you heard the candidates encourage voters to vote for the delegates. but the voters for romney and santorum have to be informed. >> bret: there are 18 districts. and 54 delegates on the line. but it's winner take all. and each one of these 18 contests. >> right. rick santorum woke up today with a delegate deficit in illinois because he only filed for 44 out

of 54 slots now, as a functional matter, i think half of the slots he didn't file for would have been going to mitt romney anyway. but this is a big-stake, big-delegate prize. it is no one's home turf and as mike had mentioned, there is really the first time that it's more or less a one on one with mitt romney and rick santorum. >> bret: gingrich folks down south, especially, have seemed to coalesce behind santorum? >> gingrich really didn't contest illinois of that was a disappointment to supporters here. so in the last few days, jim runyon from crawford county, has organized gingrich delegate, defecting en masse to santorum, including in the 13th district in urbana, champagne, all the way to the missouri state border, where one of the districts where santorum didn't

file, i was told by runyon last night, though gingrich delegates in 13 are now considering themselves santorum delegates. >> bret: carrie, mitt romney could run up the top on the -- the tab on the difference in the chicagoland area and the counties surrounding chicago. but in the 18 individual contest, that really doesn't make a difference if his vote total is huge in this area? >> that's right. it really -- there are 18 mini elections. i think the romney campaign will be breathing a sigh of relief once this primary is over because, in a way, the illinois campaign and the national campaign were at odds. >> bret: what is the storyline tonight. let's say the polls are right and romney wins and santorum, because of the delegate thing you talked about, probably they split the state. what comes out of the story of illinois, if that's the case? >> okay. headline 1 is santorum lives for another day. that's if it's the scenario

described. headline 2, if it's a rout for romney and the delegates, is this near the end of the line for santorum, no matter what? if santorum really does well, he has the ration toll stay, if mitt romney does not, then that is trouble ahead, mike, i want to talk about the local races. there is a congressional back and forth in the 16th district, i think. don manzulo and matt kitinger. eric cantor has put all of his money behind kittinger and that has caused quite a rift. >> it has. manzulo was with rom flee on sunday and then on monday, he was at the reagan memorial and his boyhood home with santorum and that santorum crowd, when they spotted manzulo, he was surrounded by people. he told me that kevin mccarth frecalifornia called him up and

has apologized for the $50,000 contribution that the young guns republican committee gave to kittinger. he said, that hey, eric cantor did that. he said this a couple of other top republicans called. they are looking at the polling. kittinger was once way ahead -- >> bret: a lot of people wonder why we talk about one congressional race. because the leader help put their foot in on the redistricting, republican against republican, it is more interesting. >> it does. senator mark kirkwood described it as red-on-red warfare. it will be close. but manzulo no matter looks bad. he's a 67-year-old congressman noffice 20 years, defeating an up-and-comer, young guy. what is he leaving on the table? >> no, i think from what i have heard -- i know it's just what i heard -- that the signs are for

manzulo because so much of the new district is his turf. just so everyone knows, this is our big republican-on-republican primary -- >> there is a democratic. >> it happened because the in thees in illinois did the remap. and they wanted to try to cause as much problems for republicans as they could. that's why they in a sense, forced this race, kittinger is very well known nationally, he played that card well, very coze weeric kantor and all of that, that does not necessarily translate back home. that's what is part of the issue here. >> bret: jesse jackson jr. has one. maybe we will get lunch here. that's it here from gibson steakhouse. stay tuned for final thoughts after the break.

we want to protect the house. right. but... home security systems can be really expensive. to save money, we actually just adopted a rescue panther. i think i'm goin-... shhh! we find that we don't need to sleep that much. there's an easier way to save. geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more. chocolate lemonade ? susie's lemonade... the movie. or... we make it pink ! with these 4g lte tablets, you can do business at lightning-fast spes.

we'll take all the strawberries, dave. you got it, kid. we have a winner. we're definitely gonna need another one. small sinesses that want to grow use 4g lte technology from verizon. i wonder how she does it. that's why she's the boss. because the small business with the best tecology rules. contact the verizon center for customers with disabilities at 1-800-974-6006. two of the most important are energy security aneconomic growth. north america actually has one of the largest oil reserves in the world. a large part of that is oil sands. this resource has the ability to create hundreds of thousands of jobs. at our kearl project icanada, we'll be able to produce these oil sands with the same emissions as many other oils and that's a huge breakthrough. that's good for oucountry's energy security and our economy.

position 102 >> welcome back to downtown chicago. gibson's. it real solid a chicago institution.

all of these folks on the wall have been to this restaurant. donald trump, tom sell lick, ted kennedy. john be liewshy. you see the list on the wall. some of them are signed. some of them are not. bo derek. all kinds of sports stars. frank sin that the tri came here a lot. he had his own table in the back. there is a special table with a picture there. bob is the general manager here at gibson's. not all of them are signed and some of them are pretty interesting. >> absolutely. one of our prize signatures isn't a a signature at all it was left for us by elizabeth taylor not wanting to leave her signature she instead left us with a signature imprint of those beautiful red lips of hers on one of our napkins. >> bret: biggest star you have had? >> they are all big stars. >> bret: all right, bob. thanks a lot. remember, tonight, full coverage of the illinois primary throughout the evening we will have cut-ins and then a special at 11:00 p.m. eastern time here on fox news chan